fkw,
From what I ahve seen, both Bruce Bochy with the Giants and Bud Black with the Padres are being tooooo aggressive and giving away unneccessary Outs.
Take the game with the Reds tonight.
Cueto is having control problems in the First Inning and what happens? Torres gets on and is then thrown out trying to steal Second Base. In that Inning, the Giants get two Hits (including a Double) and a Walk and score ZERO Runs.
In the Fourth Inning, there are men on First and Third with Two Outs and Bochy lets Brandon Crawford swing away on a 3 - 0 count. Crawford has been in the Majors less than a month so WHY do you let the kid swing away in that situation? He has had only one At Bat against Cueto and surely doesn't know what type of stuff Cueto has so why not MAKE him take at least one pitch?
In the Sixth Inning, Miguel Tejada leads off with a Double and what does Bochy do? He asks Freddie Sanchez, a good hitter who doesn't Strike Out a tremendous amount (less than 15% of his At Bats) to Bunt. He does and Tejada goes to Third. What happens next? .223 hitting Aubrey Huff Strikes Out and Nate Schierholtz grounds Out and NO RUNS SCORE.
In an era when Home Runs are down and playing in the ball parks they do, Bochy and Black are GIVING AWAY TOO MANY OUTS by trying to be aggressive. They are NOT letting their players play. They are asking them to do things they either are not good at doing or shouldn't be doing in the first place.
Neither of these guys has apparently read the info put together either by a SABR guy or one of the other stats guys that says more Runs are scored in Innings when a lead off hitter gets on and NO BUNTS are laid down than in Innings when the lead off hitter gets on and a Bunt is executed.
Freddie Sanchez had already gotten a Hit in the Game and can handle the bat so WHY do you ask him to Bunt? Unlike Adam Dunn (who Strikes Out about 40% of the time this year) allowing Sanchez to hit seems like a smart thing to do.
With Tejada already on Second, letting Sanchez swing away probably isn't going to result in a Double Play. At worst, Sanchez Strikes Out and Tejada is still on Second. If Sanchez hits a ground ball to somebody other than the Third Baseman or Pitcher, Tejada goes to Third Base, just as if a Bunt was laid sown. If he hits a medium depth Fly Ball, Tejada goes to Third Base, just as if a Bunt was laid down. Even better, if Sanchez gets a Hit, Tejada most likely scores and ties the Game. At worst, it would be First and Third with no Outs.
Nope, in the Post Steroid era, too many Managers and players are being DUMB. They don't know what to do if they can't hit Home Runs and score.
Instead of being smart they are trying to be aggressive which is the WRONG thing to do.
David
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